SKATING.

World Champ Eldredge Leaves Skate America Competition In Awe

November 03, 1996|By Philip Hersh, Tribune Olympic Sports Writer.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — He had just watched Todd Eldredge skate yet another performance of surpassing excellence Saturday afternoon at Skate America, and now Alexei Urmanov of Russia, the reigning Olympic champion, was being asked what it would take to beat his U.S. rival.

Urmanov's first answer was a shake of his head and a wry smile. There followed a lengthy pause. Clearly, the 23-year-old Russian figure skater was stumped.

"This is a very difficult question," Urmanov said.

Indeed it is. How does one top a reigning world champion whose free skate in the first singles competition of the year is virtually flawless, loaded with cleanly executed triple jumps and marked by a confidence that leaves the impression Eldredge is in total command of himself, the ice surface and his skating?

"If you do a quadruple toe loop or some quadruple jump or more difficult combinations," Urmanov said, suggesting solutions to the conundrum. And then he added, "I don't know."

The truth is, Urmanov has not attempted a quadruple jump since breaking his leg in 1992. The truth is, Urmanov skated as well as he had in any competition since winning the 1994 Olympics, and he still was a distant second to Eldredge, who swept the nine judges with 16 marks of 5.9 and two of 5.8.

Third was Alexei Yagudin, the precocious 16-year-old who trains with Urmanov in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The women's final took place later Saturday night.

The results were less impressive for Eldredge's two U.S. teammates. Scott Davis, the 1993-94 national champion, was seventh, while Dan Hollander, a 1996 world team member, botched his first three triple jumps to place 10th of 12 skaters in the free skate and ninth overall.

Davis, who changed coaches this year, longs for some of the confidence so evident in Eldredge.

This is the second straight year Eldredge, 25, of South Chatham, Mass., has begun his season with an impressive performance at Skate America, the first event in the Champions Series for Olympic-eligible skaters. Once again, it earned him $30,000 and virtually assured his qualification for the series final in February.

"There is room for improvement in spins and jumps and arm movements," Eldredge said. "But it went really well."

Skating to music from the movie, "Independence Day," Eldredge landed eight triple jumps. Two were triple axels, the first in combination with a triple toe loop.

In Thursday's short program, when Eldredge also swept the judges, his triple Axel had rattled the rafters. There seems little doubt Eldredge could land the quadruple toe loop jump he may try later in the season.

The way he is skating, Eldredge might leave such risks to others, including Urmanov, two-time world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada and 1996 world silver medalist Ilia Kulik of Russia.

"The competition is very hard now," Urmanov said. "There is a group of skaters so strong anyone can win. You can't make a mistake. If you miss one jump, you lose."

That wasn't the case in the pairs event, where the withdrawals of a top Russian team and U.S. champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand left a weak field that skated poorly.

European champions Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev won, even though she twice did one fewer revolution than he on what are to be synchronized side-by-side jumps.

Shelby Lyons and Brian Wells, the surprise leaders after the short program, squandered a chance to become the first U.S. pair in five years to win an international competition. They took second after she put her hands to the ice on one throw, and he fell on a jump.

The other U.S. pair, international debutants Stephanie Stiegler, 16, and John Zimmerman, 22, finished third but won the hearts of the small crowd by continuing to perform their program after their music stopped 40 seconds early.